The US space agency's Voyager 1 spacecraft has reached the outer edge of the solar system where wind from the Sun is no longer blowing outward, but sideways, NASA said.
The spacecraft was launched in 1977 and has since snapped images of Earth and other planets in the solar system and provided NASA with crucial information as it makes its long journey into outer space.
NASA researchers think Voyager 1 will leave the solar system and enter interstellar space, or the area in between the end of the Sun's influence and the next star system, in about four years.
For now, Voyager 1 is 17.4 billion kilometers (10.8 billion miles) from the Sun in "an area where the velocity of the hot ionized gas, or plasma, emanating directly outward from the sun has slowed to zero," the space agency said.
"Scientists suspect the solar wind has been turned sideways by the pressure from the interstellar wind in the region between stars."
NASA noticed that the solar wind's outward speed had slowed to zero back in June, but wanted to look at readings from Voyager 1 over the next four months to be sure.
The data was presented late Monday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, California.
"When I realized that we were getting solid zeroes, I was amazed," said Rob Decker, a Voyager Low-Energy Charged Particle Instrument co-investigator and senior scientist at Johns Hopkins University.
"Here was Voyager, a spacecraft that has been a workhorse for 33 years, showing us something completely new again."
NASA described the finding as "a major milestone in Voyager 1's passage through the heliosheath, the turbulent outer shell of the sun's sphere of influence, and the spacecraft's upcoming departure from our solar system."
simple but still sweet. I wonder what kind of data it will collect out there? Hopefully something cool. 
*MySmiley*
I believe all news and research that supports my opinion, and dismiss the rest as conspiracy and lies.
I believe all news and research that supports my opinion, and dismiss the rest as conspiracy and lies.
Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system
- 14/12/2010 07:23:31 PM
882 Views
*NM*
- 15/12/2010 12:29:19 AM
276 Views
Hmmm.
- 14/12/2010 08:17:17 PM
511 Views
It entered the heliosheath in 2004, and will leave for interstellar space proper in 2015. *NM*
- 14/12/2010 09:24:08 PM
211 Views
*NM*
- 15/12/2010 12:29:19 AM
276 Views
Suuuuure it does.... 
- 15/12/2010 08:13:52 AM
500 Views
- 15/12/2010 08:13:52 AM
500 Views